Tracking down an electrical gremlin

I've got an 2006 FJR1300 and I've had a Blue Seas fuse block in it for a long time. All my accessories are wired through that. Grip heaters, my heated jacket, wife's heated jacket, HID lamps, etc.

Something is draining my battery lately and I'm hoping that it's one of those items. Am I correct in assuming that I can just pull fuses one at a time and stick my multimeter's probes into the connections to see what's drawing current? I assume the draw on everything should be zero, right?

Before you start pulling out fuses, locate your reg/rec and see what static test is available. If you're cranking out too many volts back to the battery, it will draw it down. After that, then I'd start looking at individual accessories.

Before you start pulling out fuses, locate your reg/rec and see what static test is available. If you're cranking out too many volts back to the battery, it will draw it down. After that, then I'd start looking at individual accessories.

I assume you mean the battery is being drawn down overnight, or over a week or something.

A quick way to see if it's your aux fuse block in the first place would be to hook your multimeter inline between the positive terminal and the main cable to the fuse block. Should be no amperage draw when everything is shut off. If your aux panel is drawing power, then pull fuses and check for draw on the individual circuits.

You can check voltage drops across the fuses with the key off. There is a tiny bit of resistance so if there is any current flowing there will be a voltage reading. Compare between the fuses and if one is a lot higher that is probably the problem circuit.

Thanks, all. It's a relatively new battery and the bike sits on a Battery Tender trickle charger much of the time. A week is plenty of time to drain the battery.

Boon Booni, I've got both the positive and negative cables running directly to the battery. Are you saying to unhook the positive cable from the block and put the multimeter between them so that the power runs through the multimeter?

Thanks, all. It's a relatively new battery and the bike sits on a Battery Tender trickle charger much of the time. A week is plenty of time to drain the battery.

Boon Booni, I've got both the positive and negative cables running directly to the battery. Are you saying to unhook the positive cable from the block and put the multimeter between them so that the power runs through the multimeter?

Thanks!

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Yes. Multi-meter goes inline when checking amperage. Most meters are fused at 10amps (I think), so don't go trying to start the bike or turning the key on, but for checking for parasitic draw it'll be fine.

With all accessories and key off there should be minimal to zero amperage draw to your aux fuse block. If your aux fuse block is the culprit, then you can start pulling fuses and checking amperage draw across those terminals.

If the story is this: Go out to bike, and find dead battery. Jump start bike, and ride to next destination and bike re-starts fine, even after sitting a few minutes or even a couple of hours. But if the bike sits overnight and doesn't want to start in the morning: My vote is for bad battery.